These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (4.2%), Austria (4.3%) and Luxembourg (4.5%), and the highest in Spain (20.9%), Lithuania (16.3% in the first quarter of 2011) and Latvia (16.2% in the first quarter of 2011).
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in nineteen Member States and increased in eight. The largest falls were observed in Estonia (18.8% to 13.8% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011), Latvia (19.9% to 16.2% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011), Germany (7.2% to 6.0%), Hungary (11.2% to 10.0%) and Slovakia (14.5% to 13.3%). The highest increases were registered in Greece (11.0% to 15.0% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011), Bulgaria (10.1% to 11.2%), Cyprus (6.4% to 7.4%) and Slovenia (7.3% to 8.3%).
Between May 2010 and May 2011, the unemployment rate for males fell from 10.1% to 9.6% in the euro area and from 9.8% to 9.2% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate decreased from 10.4% to 10.2% in the euro area and from 9.6% to 9.5% in the EU27.
In May 2011, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 20.0% in the euro area and 20.4% in the EU27. In May 2010 it was 21.2% in both zones. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (6.9%), Germany (7.7%) and Austria (9.1%), and the highest in Spain (44.4%), Greece (38.5% in the first quarter of 2011), Slovakia (33.7%) and Lithuania (32.9% in the first quarter of 2011).
In May 2011, the unemployment rate was 9.1% in the USA. In April 2011, it was 4.7% in Japan.
